Spring rains and tomatoes!
The rivers are gushing, the plants are teeming with life, and we have had a wonderful Spring so far here in New Braunfels. We had so heavy of a rain last Saturday that the cardboard boat race was cancelled at the Tube Chute on the Comal River. Yes, small town afternoon fun. How refreshing it is to have water from sky, as rain water does miracles for plants. And my tomatoes are growing like crazy.
Here are a few pictures.
The tomato cages I made are 4' tall and they are already at the top! I am going to have to attach another level.
These are the Juliets. There are hundreds of them. This plant will produce until it freezes and is so prolific that I put it in a large planter on its own.
These are the Sweet 100's. I imagine there are about 100 on it already.
These are the San Marziano tomatoes. I am excited about these because they simply are not ever sold in stores except in cans. These are famous in Italy for being made into delicious sauces. This picture did not turn out to well, so I will post another soon.
And what summer would be memorable without a slice of a Celebrity tomato with some sea salt? Yum! Yum! Yum!
So when I was wondering around the tomato greenhouse at the Natural Gardener in Austin, JC and I were talking about heirlooms. Insert some "ooohs and ahhhs" that we were doing while looking at all the varieties. A guy mentioned that he and his partner grew the Purple Cherokee last year and that it was the best tasting tomato they had ever had. He said, "Even if it only produces two all season, it is worth it." He also said that they set early so after it gets to about 90 degrees they quit producing. So...I'm looking forward to this one! I have two on it already. Luckily my mom is a tomato magician and she is growing one too. I planted this fairly late so it does not have a cage yet. However, in the last few days it has exploded in growth and now needs one. I did feed them some Garret Juice two days before the rain and they must have been hungry!